(EnergyAsia, September 7 2011, Wednesday) — The Australian Coal Association has named Nikki Williams its new CEO, replacing executive director Ralph Hillman who retired at the end of last month. The association’s chairman, John Pegler, said Dr Williams, currently the New South Wales Minerals Council CEO, will take over the position in November. With more (more…)
(EnergyAsia, September 6 2011, Tuesday) — US-based global exchange CME Group has listed an Australian coking coal swap futures contract for trading on the Nymex floor and for clearing through CME Clearport from August 29. The new contract is settled against the fob Australia assessment in the Argus Coal Daily International market report. The launch...
(EnergyAsia, September 6 2011, Tuesday) — China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) said it expects to start up landlocked Niger’s first oil refinery later in the year. The state-owned company and Energy Ministry of the West African country are jointly building the one-million-metric ton-a-year refinery in Zinder town as part of a US$5 billion energy and...
(EnergyAsia, September 6 2011, Tuesday) — BP has completed its acquisition of a 30% stake in 21 oil and gas production sharing contracts (PSCs) that Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) operates in India, including the producing KG D6 block, to launch their strategic alliance, the two companies have jointly announced. BP will pay RIL, a private...
(EnergyAsia, September 6 2011, Tuesday) — Malaysian state oil and gas firm Petronas is targeting to double production at its 47.4%-owned Chinguetti oil field off the coast of Mauritania to 8,000 b/d by end-2011. Located in deepwater Block 4 of PSC B about 170 km from the capital, Nouakchott, the Chinguetti field was discovered in...
(EnergyAsia, September 6 2011, Tuesday) — France’s Air Liquide said its Engineering & Construction division has signed a contract with the Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group (SNCG) in China, one of the world’s largest coal companies, to build a 500,000 tonne/year methanol-to-propylene (MTP) plant. To be located in Ningdong in Ningxia province, the plant will (more…)
(EnergyAsia, September 5 2011, Monday) — The Nigerian government may have to consider devaluing the currency, the naira, if oil prices remain weak and it increases import of equipment and parts to develop the country’s road and rail infrastructure, according to Renaissance Capital. Ina research report, the investment firm said the central bank of Africa’s...
(EnergyAsia, September 5 2011, Monday) — UK’s Tullow Oil said it and its partners may invest more than US$4 billion in offshore exploration to double production in Ghana which became Africa’s latest oil producing country last December. Tullow, the operator of the producing Jubilee field, said the consortium, which includes two US companies, Anadarko Petroleum...
(EnergyAsia, September 5 2011, Monday) — Oil has added US$1.4 billion to Ghana’s export earnings in the first seven months of the year, boosting the total to US$7.5 billion. With the start-up of the offshore Jubilee field last December, Ghana’s economy can look to oil and gas to lessen its traditional dependence on cocoa and...
(EnergyAsia, September 5 2011, Monday) — Boosted by the start-up of oil production last December, Ghana’s economy is expected to grow by 13% this year, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “Ghana’s economy has recovered strongly since the start of the IMF-supported programme in 2009. Economic growth is expected to exceed 13% this year, boosted...
(EnergyAsia, September 5 2011, Monday) — Sino Clean Energy Inc, a Nasdaq-listed producer and distributor of coal-water slurry fuel (CWSF) in China, said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and a preliminary engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) agreement with Nathalin Welstar Energy Company Limited to jointly build a coal water slurry plant in (more…)
(EnergyAsia, September 2 2011, Friday) — Canada’s Prophecy Coal Corp said it has found new coal deposits at its newly acquired Ilch Khujirt property in Mongolia located 17 km northeast of its producing Ulaan Ovoo coal mine. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based miner said its workers intercepted a 19-meter-thickness coal seam on the 4,773-hectare property. Drilling...
(EnergyAsia, September 2 2011, Friday) — Thailand’s main energy firm PTT Plc has set its sights on becoming a global player with a US$100-billion investment programme to develop a substantial oil, gas, coal, power and petrochemicals portfolio over the next decade. In-coming CEO Pailin Chuchottaworn will aim to lift the state-owned company into the ranks...
(EnergyAsia, September 2 2011, Friday) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Kuwait to earn more than US$85.9 billion in oil revenue this year and US$89.2 billion in 2012 on sustained high prices. Last year, the Middle East powerhouse reported around US$61.7 billion in oil export revenue. For its planning purposes, the IMF is forecasting...
(EnergyAsia, September 2 2011, Friday) — Niger’s economy is expected to grow by 3.8% this year, and more next year with the start-up of oil production and expansion of its mining sector, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Boosted by a US$5 billion Chinese investment, the impoverished West African nation will start producing oil from...
(EnergyAsia, September 2 2011, Friday) — AES Corporation said it has closed on a US$1.5 billion long-term non-recourse financing for the construction of its 51%-held 1,200 MW Mong Duong II coal-fired power plant in Vietnam’s Quang Ninh province. The NYSE-listed company said 12 commercial banks and two South Korean government export credit agencies participated in (more…)
(EnergyAsia, September 2 2011, Friday) — Australian natural resources giant BHP Billiton has approved separate investments totalling more than US$800 million to expand a coal port in Newcastle in Australia and a coal mine in La Guajira in Colombia The company said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Hunter Valley Energy Coal Pty Ltd, will pay US$367 million (more…)
(EnergyAsia, September 1 2011, Thursday) — While ethnic conflicts, terrorism and environmental disasters are often blamed for disrupting Nigeria’s oil supply, theft can be just as potent. Citing the Nigerian federal government, UK’s Chatham House said in a new report that local groups and organised gangs working with corrupt officials have stolen as much as...
(EnergyAsia, September 1 2011, Thursday) — US Peabody Energy said it recently agreed to license to China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining Company its Longwall Top Coal Caving (LTCC) technology to enhance recovery of metallurgical coal at the North Goonyella mine in the Bowen Basin in Australia’s Queensland state. Peabody estimates the new technology will allow the...
(EnergyAsia, September 1 2011, Thursday) — Ghana’s lawmakers last week approved a controversial record US$3 billion loan from the China Development Bank despite opposition members abstaining from the final vote after hours of debate in Parliament in Accra. Edward Doe Adjaho, first deputy speaker of Parliament, said the loan, mostly for financing infrastructure projects, will...
(EnergyAsia, September 1 2011, Thursday) — Altona Energy Plc, the London AIM-listed Australia-based energy company, said the Chinese authorities have endorsed and confirmed the quality and size of its coal deposits underpinning a proposed coal-to-liquid and power project in South Australia state. Altona Energy Plc says it holds world-scale coal reserves estimated at 7.8 billion...
(EnergyAsia, September 1 2011, Thursday) — Asian buyers are struggling to procure light low-sulphur crude oil from Africa struck by the loss of 1.7 million b/d of Libyan production since the second quarter, and Shell’s force majeure on more than 300,000 b/d from Nigeria since August. The loss has been given added urgency following the...
(EnergyAsia, August 31 2011, Wednesday) — Malaysian state oil and gas company Petronas said it and its partners will jointly invest RM15 billion to boost the country’s natural gas supply by developing a cluster of nine fields located some 300km off the coast of north-eastern Terengganu state. (US$1=RM3). Petronas said it and its partners which...
(EnergyAsia, August 31 2011, Wednesday) — The International Energy Agency (IEA) has trimmed its latest forecast for world oil demand growth for 2011 by 100,000 b/d to 1.2 million b/d on account of high prices and slowing economic growth. The Paris-based agency still expects the world to consume a record 89.5 million b/d this year,...
(EnergyAsia, August 31 2011, Wednesday) — Making up for lost time from years of delayed start-up, Jurong Aromatics Corporation (JAC) said it has sold off the entire production from its world-scale Jurong Island complex for the first seven years. Based on today’s prices, the company said the sales would bring in revenue of around US$2.2...